“Universal health care for all” is a frequent rallying cry for Democrats from the Roundhouse to the White House. Take for example Barack Obama’s health care plan for America:
My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.”
Keep in mind that any time a politician tells you that they can provide you more, and you’ll be paying less, they are, well to put politely, full of… it. It just doesn’t work that way. And, take a look at that last promise, “no one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.” Is the issue really about people with preexisting conditions unable to get health insurance, or is it about them unable to get health care? It’s the latter not the former.
Of course, that leads to the next argument supporting a government run health care program. We need to join the other industrialized nations, Canada and Great Britain always being held out as shining examples, in providing nationalized health care. But, here is the ugly truth about these national health care programs (subscription) that very rarely sees the light:
In Britain right now, the national health system is falling apart, for the same reason our system is struggling. It costs too much. The British ration care by withholding services and making people wait. Americans ration care by allowing 47 million people to have no insurance.
Polling shows that the British will accept the waits and the lack of services as long as everybody has the same wait and the same lack of services. Egalitarianism is a value system, and the health system reflects it.
See, you can’t eliminate the costs of a program by changing who is paying for it. And, despite what would have us believe, Americans do not “ration care by allowing 47 million people to have no insurance.” People without insurance walk into emergency rooms everyday and receive treatment. Guess what, it’s being paid for by you and me. We pay for it with our premiums, and we pay for it with our taxes.
Of course, waiting hours upon hours in an emergency room to receive care is no one’s idea of an ideal health care system. Yet, if the nationalized health care advocates get their way, we’ll all be waiting months upon months for rationed care in what will undoubtedly be an increasingly expensive system.